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In the end, those may be the six most important words from 21-year-old Michael Sam in what has become a hugely important interview with Chris Connelly of ESPN.com and the New York Times, regarding why he chose this moment in time to out himself. Simply by doing so, Sam has altered the landscape of the NFL and perhaps all of North American male team sports forever.

There will be short-term pain, but there will ultimately be gold at the end of this rainbow.

Those that object to this and insist that a gay athlete in the NFL will never work are bowing to the strident screechings of the vocal minority, to the immediate and extreme, often vitriolic feedback of modern social media where hatred can remain anonymous. They are ignoring the history of sports as a vehicle of change within North American society — see Jackie Robinson and Willie O’Ree.

It’s never been easy, because change is never easy. Sports reflect society and society often reflects sports. Look at baseball’s integration in the ’40s. Look at equality for female athletes with regard to NCAA scholarships. Look at Jason Collins in the NBA, Robbie Rogers in Major League Soccer and now Michael Sam, who is laying it on the line, challenging NFL teams to do the right thing.

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Those that suggest his draft stock will drop are wrong. If a team already has that negative attitude toward drafting a gay player, it won’t mean dropping from the third round to the ninth, it will mean being off the draft list completely.

Missouri Tigers defensive lineman Michael Sam recently revealed that he is gay, though the announcement is unlikely to hurt his chances of being drafted into the NFL. (Tim Sharp / The Associated Press)

All it takes is one team to maintain him in his deserved slot — and based on the response so far, there is more than one NFL team willing to take Sam.

“We’re about winning,” New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft told the Boston Herald. “Anyone who can come in here and help us win, I personally don’t care what their ethnic background is, their racial background, the gender preference. If they can help us win, and they’re about team first, then I’m happy to have him here.”

Sam is projected as a third- or fourth-round draft pick. A defensive end for the Missouri Tigers, he led the powerhouse Southeast Conference with 11.5 sacks and helped his school to a surprising 12-2 record and a Cotton Bowl win.

The most uplifting part of the story is that his Tiger teammates knew of his sexual orientation prior to the season, yet the news never leaked and was never a factor in the locker room or on campus. But Sam became concerned. With events like the Senior Bowl and with the NFL Combine looming, he knew his secret coming out was inevitable. He needed to control the moment.

Rich Eisen of ESPN noted on Twitter that Sam’s combine number is DL 42; coincidentally, the same uniform number Robinson wore with the Dodgers. But there are inherent dangers in comparing Sam’s sympathetic odyssey to that of Robinson and his 1946-47 pioneering efforts as the first post-1900 African-American in Major League Baseball. Robinson’s ordeal was unrelenting, and as visible as the colour of his skin.

Not to take away from the daunting year ahead for the Missouri defensive end, but society is further along in its acceptance of the LGBT community in 2014 than it ever was with the civil rights and basic freedoms of African-Americans in 1946, when the Brooklyn Dodgers signed Robinson.

For Sam, his battle versus bigotry and homophobia will be mainly against the uneducated, ignorant segments of the fan base, certain opposition players looking for an edge and, likely, a limited number of teammates inside his locker room. But the majority of NFL fans, opponents and teammates will be supportive.

Away from the field, Sam can more easily slide into anonymity than Robinson ever could, into a comfort zone within his own support group. Robinson, as a highly visible icon of the burgeoning movement toward equal rights in America, was in the eternal spotlight of hatred, with pressure from the Dodgers not to retaliate.

Sam has a degree of division between his public and private life, something that Robinson was never able to achieve as he tried to elbow his way into a white man’s world. Robinson’s inability to escape the situation led to later health issues.

Back in 1946, Dodgers president Branch Rickey deliberately went out to identify the former UCLA three-sport star as a subject in what was labelled “The Great Experiment.”

For Rickey, it wasn’t just about nobly creating a breakthrough for society in race relations. Rickey was a businessman who saw the demographics of Brooklyn were changing. By signing Robinson as the first African-American in modern baseball, the Dodgers almost doubled their potential fan base. Besides, Robinson could help them win a pennant — and winning meant revenue. In that light, there was no way his team would allow anything to happen without their total support.

For Sam, the situation is somewhat different.

“He’s a football player, he’s not someone who is looking to become this political advocate, who wants to be talking about LGBT rights,” said Wade Davis, executive director of You Can Play Project, formerly headed by Patrick Burke, son of Calgary Flames president Brian Burke. “That’s not who he is.”

Sam is first and foremost a player. He has already showed NFL teams his courage and he will surely play in the NFL. But remember, even though Robinson broke baseball’s colour barrier in 1947, the majors weren’t fully integrated until infielder Pumpsie Green joined the Red Sox in 1959.

There will be problems for Sam, but ultimately there will be success. The NHL and MLB remain two major North American team sports that have not yet joined the parade. Will we see those barriers broken any time soon?

The Sam case is terrific progress toward never having to ask the question again.

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